What was that

           what was that he had seen on the uneven face on the plastered wall beside the castiron tub

its clawed feet twitched anxiously

tricked by light the late summer sun smeared on the frosted window over his shoulder casting his shadow

untethered by the fistfight that broke his nose  bleeding  drips turning into blossoms on the still hot water

vision blurred

he wasnt sure of any of it

he worked his bruised hands under the water a finger at a time rubbing them feeling for broken bones

No  badly bruised  escaped from his throat

he turned to his shadow cast on the wall

Bruised yah  We agree

he nodded his head so it silently nodded its agreement its slavish acquiescence

he smiled sardonically

Bitch

he wasnt calling his shadow a bitch

it was reserved for the one of the three who was cajoled into the fight by the two others who preened like they were going to throw in make it a three on one

the bitch he didnt know

the other two were punks and had fled before

he was pretty sure they didnt want their pretty faces marred

maybe he hoped they doubled back to help the unconscious bitch who had to be knocked cold to stop the fight because he wasnt gonna stop

the bitch gave good

but not better than him

he hoped he learned his lesson about the other two or maybe went after them when he healed up

he cautiously blew through his nose

he worked a black clot from his left nostril bright red blood sprinkled the side of the tub

he couldnt make anything of its randomness

How bout you he said to his shadow  But you probably cant seeNo you cant  Usually I can find patterns in everything

Usually

You ought to come over here and take a look

with his hand to his face fingers resting on his nose over them he thought he saw it start a hesitation not sure

not taking his hand down he turned to it so the diffuse sunlight was directly behind his head

it threw aligned his soft shadow 

dropping his hand he watched

his ears either side of his head were apparent 

then its head tilted slightly to its right as was his habit when he puzzled over something

he tilted his head right

it didnt follow

it seemed to darken

resentment

the ache in his nose his face tried to distract him but he waved his hand before himself as if to chase it away as if it were an annoying fly without breaking his watch at the plastered wall

his shadow didnt mime him

then it tilted its head upright where they started

he followed in kind

it tilted its head left

he tilted his head left

their tilts were opposite each other

it tilted its head upright again but he went past upright to his confused his puzzled incline and it seemed to him his countenance darkened glowered  his face flushed

he reached out across the edge of the tub and with the back of a bruised finger he ran it down the walls uneven face where the shadows cheek was

it was just a wall with his shadow cast against it

he blinked

he brought his hand back and with a knuckle he wiped his eyes pulled it across his left eye pushed it across his right avoiding his broken nose

blinking again he was sure they were working

he wasnt concussed

Anything to say bitch

he called his shadow bitch

Cat gotcher tonguebut you   you dont have a tongue

Anything

he was talking to a wall

maybe he wasnt right after allit was more than a broken nose

then he reasoned a shadow would be mute 

it didnt have a tongue

he was about to say Got nothing when it opened its pale blue eyes 

       

1941,  Friday,  2  9. 16

‘69 Jam Session at the Matrix in SF  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alAkoZasJ-Y

of Oscar Wildes luminous quotes this was his favorite

                                           We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessity

Wilde wrote it in his Picture of Dorian Gray that Lippincotts Monthly Magazine published in 1890

1890  sobering   One hundred and twentysix(126) years ago

he blatantly refashioned it to shove Wildes keen insight down peoples throats(hoping theyd choke)

We live in an age when unneccessarry things are our only necessity

he mused what Wilde might have thought if he hung on until to-day   and well shit October 1854  he would have had to exhibit some mindblowing serious hand strength                                          

One hundred and sixtytwo years(162 – a nice flipflop -- some symmetry)

and why not
          why shouldnt Wilde have had a shot to face down some of those Biblical characters  his guess Wilde wouldnt have wasted his time begottin  not that he wouldnt have been fuckin

Adam stretched out for 930 years(Genesis 5:5)

Enoch  365 years(Genesis 5:23)

Methuselah  969 years(Genesis 5:27)

Hell even Noah turned 950 years old(he was 600 when he survived The Flood and while he lived 350 years afterwards Biblical ages successively and precipitously fell off  --  Hmm)

Enosh(already) lived 905 years(Genesis 5:10)

there were obviously some heavy-hitters from Christianitys Old Testament(mirroring the Jewish Tanakhs first book)

but to curiously top off the scoops of that Sundae with whipped cream a cherry and chopped walnuts was Irish Archbishop James Ussher who deduced in 1650 that Creation recorded in Genesis --  when the Lights came on  --  happened October 23 4004 B.C. at nine o’clock in the morning  while the Jews determined October 22 of that same year  at six o’clock in the evening

Werent they splitting hairs

how nneccessarry was this information(misinformation)

Fabulists he decided and confirmed his deicide liberally informed his defect and desire to retake his soul from the Roman Catholic Church that his parents thoughtlessly and carelessly deposited in their Keep

he was a Kept man long enough and expected the Church would react to him wanting to take his soul back as the NRA might when regarding their guns:  Ill give you my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands

his soul wasnt his parents to give away

he had a buddy who was born stricken during Chicagos '53 polio epidemic whose doctors believed his death was imminent  his parents grabbed two strangers from the waitingroom outside Delivery anointed them godparents and baptised him fearing he would die  his soul unable to journey to Heaven

thats a bit extreme isnt it  condemning an innocent

his buddy Bobby survived and never challenged the Church for his soul or probably ever conceived of it because he had his hands full growing up with his disabilities and died young

they went to Church together as teenagers but that was more for their Sunday breakfast afterwards at the House of Pies and the girls in their Sunday finery being coquettish in their presence and the prying eyes of their suspicious parents

they had too much fun ogling the girls while their parents quietly interrogated them  Do you know those boys
Who are those boys

they didnt care squat it was Sunday and furthur they didnt care because the girls they eyeballed were primped and the prim and proper ones who no matter how goodlooking and they were goodlooking werent in their league or would they want to be in theirs

they liked girls they could run around with and have fun  Mungo Jerry* playmates

there was another reason he wanted his soul back

it occurred to him that his soul might be something of a googolplex-byte memory recording that could be downloaded or played when he croaked and by Rights it wouldnt be his not his to Play rePlay run-back or play backwards for the thrill of it for his own delight
                    a magenificent consciousness--unconsciousness dvd writ by his life

it was probably hinged on the same reason why he wasnt leaving his body to science that some muthafucker might come along desecrate his remains filch his skull so they could have it as a paperweight or burn candles down on top of it as he did  incited by Shakespeares Alas poor Yoricks speech he had it down pat memorized(he was mesmerised)

"I knew him well a fellow of infinite jest of most excellent fancy He hath borne me on his back a thousand times and now how abhorred in my imagination it is My gorge rises at it Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft Where be your gibes now Your gambols Your songs Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar Not one now to mock your own grinning Quite chapfallen Now get you to my ladys chamber and tell her let her paint an inch thick to this favor she must come Make her laugh at that"

Nope

nobody was going to rob his skull flense him dismember him leave his arms and legs on a shelf beneath his torso laying on a rolling dissection gurney raced up and down basement hallways by some cretin or loser of a campus drinking game

Nope

Unneccessarry

  

Day-between-Two-Ts afternoon,  31  8. 16

1146, Thursday,  1  9. 16

Lifespans in Genesis  http://www.bible-history.com/old-testament/lifespans.html

* In the Summertime  Mungo Jerry   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG0oBPtyNb0